UPDATE
Apr 21, 2026 2:40 PM CDT
Two Israeli soldiers who smashed a family's statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon have been pulled from combat duty and sentenced to 30 days of military detention, the Israeli military says. One of the soldiers hit the statue's face with what appeared to be a sledgehammer while the other took photos of the incident, the BBC reports. The military says six other soldiers who failed to intervene or report the incident may also be disciplined. In a post on X, the Israel Defense Forces expressed "deep regret" over the Sunday incident that caused widespread outrage, reports the New York Times. The IDF shared a photo of a replacement statue installed by its troops.
Apr 20, 2026 8:18 AM CDT
Israeli leaders are condemning a jarring image that emerged out of Lebanon over the weekend. The widely circulated photo shows an Israeli soldier swinging the blunt end of an axe into the face of a toppled statue of Jesus, reports NBC News. "I condemn the act in the strongest terms," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a post on X, adding that he was "stunned and saddened" by the image. The military authenticated the photo, called the behavior "wholly inconsistent" with its values, opened an investigation, and said it would help restore the statue.
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, wrote on X that "Swift, severe, & public consequences are needed." A local priest from the Christian border town of Debel in southern Lebanon tells Reuters the statue stood in a family's garden and called its destruction a "desecration." The incident lands amid a US-brokered ceasefire and a broader Israeli campaign in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah, which Lebanese officials say has killed nearly 2,300 people and displaced more than 1 million.
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